March: Budget, Goals, and a productive first weekend.

We had a pretty successful weekend. Friday afternoon my neighbor Jen and I took our dogs to McIver dog park and let all the girls run around a play for about an hour. On Saturday I had two appointments then in the afternoon Wayne and I ran our first 6 miles of the year. My time was 1:03 and I am super proud of that time.

Saturday evening we visited our friends Rob and Caitlin at there place in Vancouver. We just hung out, Rob made dinner and we played Mario on Wii all night. Sunday morning Wayne had planned to meet a guy in SE Portland to look at a bike for sale. He sold his Cyclocross bike at the end of December and decided that he wanted a single speed bike instead. I asked him, "Why would you want a single speed bike when it is harder to ride?" The he asked me why I ran hills. The answer was obvious, for a challenge.We took Dakota with us to get her out of the house for the day. We met him at Stumptown Coffee and I think I had the best cranberry orange scone of my entire life and a latte while he took the bike for a spin and finished his transaction

Also, the old '98 Civic hit 180,000 miles. Now shit's going to start breaking.

To give Dakota a little joy in the trip we went to the Mt. Tabor dog park. Wayne had never been to Mt. Tabor so we took some time and explored a little. 

Then we got home and Brandon was outside, he let the dogs out (who who who who) And Dakota and Rouge played while Brandon talked to Wayne about running shoes. Then I cleaned the entire car, inside and out. 

We also made our March Budget. If you remember, the February Budget was a disaster. We stopped writing stuff down after the 1st week. Wayne wanted to give it another shot this month so here it is!

Fixed Expenses

Mortgage and PT: $959

HOA: $121

Sandy Net/Water: $52

Auto Ins: H: $62 W: $150

Garbage: $17

Union Dues: $36

Life Ins: $38

H Student Loans: $112

H Business CC: $32

Variable Expenses

PGE: $50

NW Natural: $75

Cell Phone: $133

Grocery : $400

Gas: $190

Total monthly living expenses: $2,427

8 month emergency fund should be: $ 19,416

Misc. Expenses

Dog and Cat: $65

Personal Care: $85

Food/Ent: $350

Clothing: $100

Total misc expenses (non living): $600

Wayne found out he is getting a decent tax refund this year. We are using a new CPA and she wants to look at his past returns because she noticed that 2011 didn't have his out of town expenses, like his per Diem added to it. We will be amending 3 additional years worth of taxes and he should be getting another big chunk from that. 

I am happy to say that with what we have in savings plus his 2012 tax refund we have well over an 8 month emergency fund! We finally made it! We both have a feeling of accomplishment and I feel a lot better about this month especially since my monthly income has taken a little drop. 

We are still working on our goals for March but here are my personal and business goals and some of our combined goals:

Heather

Follow half marathon training schedule of running 4x a week.

finish taxes

drink more water, 70 oz a day. I am really bad at doing this.

foam roll 2x a week

send out client discount vouchers

continue with soap making creations (here's my Etsy shop that I just launched last week)

Together Goals

exercise Dakota 4x a week

start organizing garage overhead

book Zion camp spot

Oh Zion i can't wait to visit you in May!

That concludes our successful March weekend. What were you up to over the weekend?